The real impact of #BookTok on library circulation

Find out how #BookTok has impacted the Canadian library circulation in this @BookNet_Canada blog post.
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In a recent blog post, we looked at the impact #BookTok trends have on the Canadian sale of backlist titles. As it turns out, the platform makes a huge difference. From before #BookTok began in 2019 to now in 2022, the sales of backlist titles that have trended on #BookTok increased over 1,000%!

What impact does #BookTok have on the Canadian library circulation of backlist titles? We find out in this instalment with the help of LibraryData, our national Canadian library collection and circulation analysis tool. Using LibraryData, we gathered data on the library circulation of 20 backlist titles and series that have trended on #BookTok since 2020:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers

• Legend series by Marie Lu

• The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller

• Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi

• Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo

• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

• Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard

• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

• A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas

• It Ends with Us series by Colleen Hoover

• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

• Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

• They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

• Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman

• The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

• Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This list is almost identical to the one we used to analyze the sales of #BookTok trending titles. Why is it different? LibraryData stores ISBNs in clusters. These ISBN clusters may contain any number of ISBNs related to one title or to a series of books. This means that if a title belonged to a series of books, data for all the titles in the series were included. Altogether, these titles were associated with 280 ISBNs:

• The smallest number of ISBNs related to a title or series is one ISBN.

• The largest number of ISBNs related to a title or series is 85 ISBNs.

• While each title had 14 related ISBNs on average, the median number of ISBNs was 5.

Drumroll, please!

The demand for #BookTok titles

One thing's for sure — Canadian library patrons are borrowing #BookTok backlist titles. The graph below shows the aggregated library circulation for all 20 titles and series month-by-month from September 2019 to August 2022. During this time, the library loans of these trending titles and series increased by 561%.

While this is a big increase, it only tells us part of the story. Since a library’s ability to circulate titles is limited by the number of copies it has in its collection, library holds, rather than library loans, can show a clearer picture of library book borrowers' interest in particular books. When we look at the library holds for our #BookTok trending titles over this time period, the number of holds increases exponentially, by 1,430%.

Just like for the sales of these books in the Canadian market, each backlist title or series saw increases in the number of holds in Canadian libraries. Month-to-month, these #BookTok trending titles saw increases from anywhere between 171% to 77,700%, with a median increase of 2,164%.

Which of our #BookTok titles circulate the most in Canadian libraries? These are the top three #BookTok backlist titles and series with the biggest increases in holds:

• Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow (2016) — up 77,700% from September 2019 to August 2022;

• They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (2017) — up 14,585% from September 2019 to September 2021; and

• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (2014) — up 12,053% from September 2019 to July 2021.

Borrowing backlist

#BookTok is directly impacting the library circulation of our 20 backlist titles and series, but we can’t paint all backlist with the same brush. Based on what BookNet Canada’s Project Manager Monique Mongeon found in her backlist blog series last year and what we found in the sales edition of this #BookTok series, we know that 2-5-year-old backlist titles tend to outsell backlist books of other ages. Is the same true for the circulation of backlist titles in Canadian libraries?

For our list of 20 #BookTok backlist titles and series:

• 15% were one year old at the start of #BookTok (pub year 2019);

• 50% were 2-5 years old at the start of #BookTok (pub years 2015-2018);

• 25% were 6-10 years old at the start of #BookTok (pub years 2011-2014); and

• 10% were over 11 years old at the start of #BookTok (pub years 1813 and 1939).

The graph below shows the library holds for these trending titles according to their age. Again, it’s the 2-5-year-old backlist titles that have the greatest number of holds, increasing 3,226% overall. The next most popular titles in the library are 6-10 years old and one year old titles, up 371% and 620% respectively. Titles and series that were over 11 years old were the least popular, with an increase of 89% in holds from September 2019 to August 2022.

Popularity by subject

Which book subjects are the most popular on #BookTok? Our 20 backlist titles and series were split — 50% were classified as Adult (or general trade) and 50% were Young Adult titles in BISAC.

The most popular Adult subject was Fiction / Romance, at 50% of all Adult titles. For Young Adult titles, the subjects were more varied, with the top categories tied at 20% each — Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes and Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy.

Just like for the sales of #BookTok backlist, Adult titles were more popular than Young Adult ones in Canadian libraries, shown in the graph below. From September 2019 to August 2022, #BookTok Adult backlist saw a 1,438% increase in holds in Canadian libraries. Young Adult #BookTok titles a saw similar 1,403% increase in library holds during this time, but with a significantly less volume of holds.

Titles vs. series

In this instalment of our #BookTok blog series, we’ve been looking at the library circulation of individual titles and entire series of books. Out of our list of 20 backlist titles and series, 65% are standalone titles and 35% are book series, numbering an average of 3 titles each.

What impact does this have on the circulation of our #BookTok backlist?

The graph below shows the number of holds for series and individual titles from September 2019 to August 2022 and looks quite different from the data we shared in the sales edition of this blog series. Here, the number of holds for series backlist titles has increased dramatically, up 3,314%. Holds for individual #BookTok titles also increased 614% over this time period, with the number of holds appearing to be relatively steady over the last year.

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Until next time!